Alarm!!!

The etymology of the word dates back to the 1300's when "all'arme" and "alarme" meant "to arms."

That's not exactly what I was doing at 3:56am today when the burglar alarm went off at my house. I wasn't arming myself as I should have been.

If you've never experienced being awakened by a 130+ decibel siren when in the dead of sleep, consider yourself fortunate. It's an adrenaline rush in the worst of ways. It's something you hope you never hear but something you hope you're prepared for when you do hear it. We've tested the system in the past to ensure it's functioning correctly. We've heard the different tones and cadences of the sirens - one for burglary and one for fire. We've even had them go off before ... and not only in test mode.

We were only in our new house for a few days some 5 years ago when the alarm went off around 1am. It turns out a wire leading to a window contact was somehow damaged in the wall or ceiling space. That zone was open no matter what and decided to open, of course, at 1am. That was our first taste of what to expect when an alarm goes off while asleep. Then there was the morning the alarm was still on (stay mode) following being set the night before and Liz let a kitchen cabinet door slam shut tripping a glass break sensor. Yes, they are that sensitive. There was even the time when the fire alarm cadence sounded due to a steam cleaner being placed too close to a heat/smoke sensor. The ironic part of that scare is that Jamie and I were burning some boxes about 50 yards from the house near the creek at the back of our property. My first thought was that somehow a burning ember floated on the wind to the house and somehow it was burning. It would have been Murphy at work as that is a long shot that I don't think could even happen but nonetheless we panicked. Liz was already on the phone with the monitoring company trying to clear it up.

This morning's scare occurred because a french door opened. I go through a routine each night of checking doors so how I missed this door not being locked is beyond me. And I've already heard about it from Liz! Outside that french door is the upper level of our deck and it's covered by the roof. If you've got an imagination, think of this upper level as being an alcove with steps leading down to the next level of the deck and two sets of french doors on the opposing side. It had been raining and while the upper level was dry the lower deck level and stairs leading between the two were wet. Later when investigating what happened I realized there were no wet foot tracks on the upper deck. No two-legged intruder breached our home. I've come to the conclusion it was the wind. Last night and even now as I type this the wind blows fiercely - the same storm system that brought tornadoes to Oklahoma yesterday. Not having the deadbolt latched allowed the door to flex. If you recall that part of the deck is an alcove and the pressure on the door was enough to deflect the upper portion of the door just enough to open the contact. I played with it this morning and could reproduce this.

What upsets me about this the most is that we failed to react accordingly. I jumped up and grabbed my glasses and turned on my bedside light. Maybe a second or two there. I went directly to the alarm keypad to turn off the alarm. That seems to be the first reaction each time - turn off that noise. Hearing is a valuable sense and that noise has to stop so I can hear what's going on. Also at the keypad I can see the zones being triggered. I see "french door" then immediately "living room motion". I also hear the chimes sound at the keypad - something that happens with each door open and close. The brain can process at a high rate of speed and the outcome at that moment was that someone entered the french door and either shut it behind him or he went back out. Perhaps he opened the door and when the alarm triggered and siren blared, he took off. But that "living room motion" told me someone was in the living room - right where the french door is. It was immediately after this thought and the siren ceasing that I could hear my daughter sobbing. And she was close. Again - all this in a second or less. I move to the bottom step from our master bedroom entrance and see my daughter walking through the living room and toward our bedroom. This puts her walking in front of and very close to the french doors. And here I am unarmed.

Fortunately, this was a false alarm and I didn't need to be "to arms" with a weapon in hand to deal with an intruder. The monitoring company called within a minute of the alarm and, in retrospect, telling them it was a false alarm and providing my code might not have been the best thing to do. I had very quickly made the determination it was a false alarm but what if it hadn't been raining? I couldn't have expected to see wet footprints on the wooden deck and there certainly could have been an intruder in the house. Perhaps in another room.

We are also going to do some planning and review for how to react during the daytime and night when faced with a fire siren and a burglary siren. While Jamie did the right thing and stayed in his room (with a weapon in hand I might add - kudos to him) awaiting either an all clear from dad or mom, Sarah was frightened and made her way toward mom and dad's room in the dark. Yikes! Liz did the right thing and stayed back and found a phone. She was prepared to call 911 and in the future will call right away rather than waiting. The next time it might not be a false alarm. For me, the unloaded gun that sits in the bedside table will get loaded and secured in a quick access, compact handgun safe.